Assessment of the Risk of Melanoma in Relatives of Patients with Parkinson's Disease

Abstract

The goal of this pilot study was to describe the occurrence of melanoma among patients with PD in the Washington Parkinson's Disease Registry (WPDR), and their family members. Our evaluation has the following aims: 1) To determine whether there is a higher proportion of individuals with melanoma among those with PD compared to the general population; and 2) To determine whether there was a higher proportion of relatives with melanoma among those with PD than would be expected in the general population. Eligible subjects were 839 individuals with PD enrolled in the WPDR. Data on melanoma and PD in relatives were based on self-report. We found a significantly higher proportion of participants with melanoma in the WPDR than expected in the general population. Sixty-two (7.7%) of eight hundred and ten probands that responded to the melanoma questions on their surveys had melanoma, which was significantly higher than expected values. We found a higher, but not significantly higher, proportion of parents with melanoma (2.6%) in the WPDR than expected in the general White Population. We did not find a higher proportion of melanoma in siblings (1.5%) or children (0.6%) than expected in the WPDR than in the general White population.